Comments on: Between Dimensions: Solaris (1972)

By: Reed Farrington

Reed Farrington — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 07:01:11 +0000

@yomark: Some people may think I have an attention deficit disorder. I do have a habit of watching ten minutes of a DVD and then coming back to it later if I get bored. I think the problem is that too much entertainment IS BORING. I love reading, and there are many books that are just as boring as many movies.

By: yomark

yomark — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:23 +0000

I’m really quite dismayed at all the warnings about “Solaris”, in any of it’s forms being so slow. I saw the (Soviet?) version at a revival house sometime in the late ’80’s-early ’90’s, and fell in love with it. I’d originally become intriguied with the concept of Solaris through “Barlowe’s Guide to Extra-terrestrials”, in which the illustrator features “aliens’ he considered to be the most interesting thoughout all science-fiction. The “planet” Solaris was one of these.
My experience of Clooney’s Solaris was that it was almost exactly the same plot as the Russion version, and like both movies, quite a but removed from the book. In fact, I found the movies QUITE less incomprehensible than the movies. I disagree that the ending to Soderbergh’s movie was essentially different than the Russian, perhaps just a little more open to interpretation. I beleive that ht ending of OSderbrgh’s ALSO has the main character living in a Solaris-created facsimile of his home on Earth. (Now, I may NOT have come to this conclusion if I hadn’t seen the Russian version, I admit).
As to these being called slow, this truly dismays me, and makes me worry for the generations that follow mine. Perhaps you ARE all spending too much time being constantly stimulated by the myriad devices at your disposal. It makes me worry that there won’t be any READERS left in a generation or so. That’s a skill that takes some patience, and attention-span, you know.

By: Curt

Curt — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:23:19 +0000

Reed

I have not seen the Solaris remake – maybe I’ll have time on the SF Universe project.
You will love the original – before you see it just taper off all movies, video games, posting, tweeting, writing, TV (especially Star Trek reruns), and podcasts for two weeks prior to viewing. You need to be in a deep trance to appreciate this film.

Thanks to Sama on the well-deserved correction for Lem being a Polish writer. I knew better. For penance, I will read Solaris in the original Polish.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:35:42 +0000

Thanks for correcting that Lem was Polish.

By: AlexG

AlexG — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:21:28 +0000

I think I prefer this to Stalker, a beautiful movie in itself, but one that, I think, has a less ambiguous message, emphasised in the ridiculous final scene

By: Sarna

Sarna — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:34:02 +0000

sorry, the name of the film is STALKER

By: Sarna

Sarna — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:33:06 +0000

StanisÅ‚aw Lem is a POLISH writer, not Russian. and he is (was) great indeed. Solaris is a an icredible movie, one of sci-fi all time classics. Be sure to check out Tarkowsky’s STAKLKER from the late 70’s, its mind blowing.

By: bullet3

bullet3 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:00:17 +0000

The original Solaris is way better than the remake.
Just the unique approach to science fiction where it doesn’t try to wow you with any action or special-effects, that makes it feel so much more realistic to me.

And it has a way better ending.

Spoilers

There’s kind of a jump cut back to Kelvin at his fathers house, making you think he’s decided to return to Earth, but then the camera slowly pulls back to reveal the house is on an island in the sea on Solaris. A real mindfuck ending.

End Spoilers

By: Hoffamania

Hoffamania — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:56:17 +0000

Spoilers….

The ending of Soderbergh’s has Kelvin deciding to stay on the station. I interpret it to be that he died on the station and that his essence / being is recreated by Solaris along with his memory of Rheya essentially providing them all eternity to be together.

End spoilers

I’m not going to lie… Tarkovsky is a hard director. I’ve been put to sleep many times and now only watch his movies at like 12pm but I still love them. They are incredibly rich and thought provoking. Seeing as though sci-fi has been trending towards monsters and laser beams, Tarkovsky’s Solaris is a gem simply for doing things differently.

It’s a benchmark for what I hope sci-fi re-discovers someday soon. (Moon was a great step in this direction)

By: Reed Farrington

Reed Farrington — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:38:06 +0000

Curt, I was wondering what you thought of Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris. I’ve seen it twice and I can’t remember what the ending was.

I’ve wanted to see Tarkovsky’s Solaris, but I’ve never had the opportunity to do so. I suspect I would be bored by it. For me, reading about existentialism is kind of boring. Visualizing it would perhaps be even more so.